A looooong time ago…

All the way back in 2004 my best friend was due to have her 1st baby. I’d flown back from New Zealand and I was so excited to be there for her.

As the labour began I quickly realised that I had no idea what was going on and I felt completely helpless.
You don’t quite realise how hard it is to watch someone you love go through something that only they can handle. All I could do was hold her hand, give her water, give her gas and air and run around the hospital looking for midwives in a very busy maternity ward.

I was so honoured she wanted me there and completely humbled by the experience of watching her handle such a triumph. But even today I don’t think she knows just how helpless I felt, and knowing what I do now, I know I could have done more.

“The busy hospital birthing experience made me realise that, for me, I never wanted to give birth in a hospital.”

So when I became pregnant 13 years later all those thoughts came flooding back to me.

As soon as we became publicly pregnant, Hypnobirthing came highly recommended. Even by people we had barely spoken to leapt up to announce that we had to do it and how it helped them.

We thought:

“Well if strangers feel compelled to tell us to do it, we should probably take a look!”

After finding our local instructor, the wonderful Jane Wallington, we booked onto the next available course and well… the rest is history. We learned skills not just for the birth of our baby but for the rest of our lives. Skills that I still use today.

The course made me realise that my anxiety came from the fact that I didn’t want my husband to feel as I did as a birthing partner before. In order for me to feel calm and relaxed I needed to know that he was OK whilst I focussed on birthing our baby.

You can find his version of our birth story here but because of Hypnobirthing, I was able to confidently pursue a home birth plan with our incredible midwife.

And when our little one decided start making his way to us we got to put all our birth preferences into play.

It doesn’t matter that…

he was overdue, it doesn’t matter we had a long labour, it doesn’t matter that I wasn’t able to eat all the snacks I had bought for the birthing occasion, it doesn’t matter that we transferred into hospital at the end.

What matters is that we felt in control due to The Wise Hippo Birthing Course. It matters that I stayed calm and relaxed throughout which is what Hypnobirthing shows you.

And as a side note I was so proud of myself that I did not have any pain relief over my 61 hour labour. Because of hypnobirthing I had no idea my labour was that long thanks to time distortion. I had my husband calmly by my side which kept me calm. We had our wonderful Doula and Midwife by both our sides ensuring we were comfortable, relaxed and focussed.

All in all we had the birth we wanted and we wouldn’t change a thing because we were in control and made all the decisions.

If this is something you would like for your birth, then you’re in the right place 😊

Feel free to get in touch at any time, and please know there is no such thing as a “silly question”.

Can’t wait to hear from you!

Nicki xx